Chapter 243: Chapter 243 Speeding Up into Becoming a Vampire_1
"It sounds like you have a handle in his hand?"
Aiden felt that Kael’s statement didn’t seem to be a reluctance to rebel subjectively, but rather an objective inability to betray the progenitor.
"Well..." Kael suddenly paused here.
Aiden remembered that they had touched on this topic before. At the time, Kael had mentioned to him that there was a "contract" between himself and the progenitor, but when asked further, he said it involved personal privacy.
Aiden had thought that Kael would end the conversation there, but to his surprise, Kael suddenly brought up a seemingly unrelated topic, "May I ask, warden, have you told Ophelia about the prison break?"
Aiden thought for a moment and nodded, "Yes."
"Have you mentioned my situation to her?"
"Mhm." Aiden continued to respond, "I am actually quite curious as to why you didn’t explain it to her directly in the letter?"
He had specifically mentioned Kael to Ophelia, partly to advise Ophelia to behave herself and partly to confirm the truth of Kael’s words from her reaction.
"What was her reaction?" Kael asked seriously.
"She said she didn’t want to care about whether you live or die." Aiden shrugged, "It was clear that she was very dissatisfied with you for being so loyal to the progenitor."
"That’s really heartless." Kael sighed with raised eyebrows, "How is she doing in prison now?"
"Not great... Well, to be strict, her situation is actually very dangerous. Participating in a riot, attempting to attack prison guards is a very serious offense. In comparison, her previous escape attempts are child’s play. Luckily, it was an attempt; otherwise, by the time you arrived in Silvertown, you would be receiving her remains." Aiden gave an honest assessment, "Now, her sentence has already surpassed one hundred and fifty years, with parole restricted. The key issue is her attitude shows no signs of cooperation. At this rate, I reckon... the outlook is grim."
Ophelia, being an accomplice in the riot, had a far worse situation than Meiruki, the main culprit.
Meiruki—although it could be virtually certain that her cooperation wasn’t genuine, at least on the surface she had submitted and started to cooperate with her sentence. Moreover, she could exchange her medical research, which surpassed the limits of the era, for sentence reduction due to her contributions. Even though she had been sentenced to death with a stay of execution, as long as she didn’t cause her own downfall, there was still a chance for her to live out her remaining years in prison.
As for Ophelia, although she hadn’t yet faced the death penalty, she wasn’t far from it. The key point was that from the last fight incident, she showed absolutely no intention of cooperating with her sentence. From Aiden’s experience, prisoners who are unreasonably willful and behave recklessly, not to mention one hundred and fifty years, even just a few years would almost certainly result in causing trouble in prison. The next time she tries to escape or stirs up trouble, even if she isn’t killed by the riot squad, she would likely not escape the death penalty.
"It’s really troubling." Kael slapped his forehead with a troubled look, "Sigh, I really regret it... At that time, I shouldn’t have kept indulging her."
"I’ve seen quite a few family members like you," Aiden commented impassively, without a trace of sympathy.
From his experience, many criminals who had detached from society had their twisted roots traceable to their formative environments.
This "twisting" varied from case to case.
Some, like Carmilla, were from the lowest rungs of society, lacking a normal family structure, living a normal life was a luxury, and they could easily stray onto the path of crime.
However, there was another scenario, which was having a nurturing environment but not receiving proper education, being pampered from an early age, never disciplined or punished for wrongdoing, and gradually developing a self-centered personality that ignored rules. When confronted with a certain opportunity, they too could likely commit crimes without regard for legal constraints.
And Ophelia’s character traits matched the latter situation quite closely.
Kael remained silent for a while, poured himself another cup of coffee, signaled for Aiden to sit on the chair, and then he himself sat down on the edge of the bed.
"The Kaodo Family used to be local nobility in the eastern part of Senni; my father was a Marquis, ah, not the kind with just a title, but one with a small piece of land." Kael suddenly began to talk about his family before his death, "I was trained as the heir since I was young, but Ophelia was different..."
"She was very spoiled by your parents?" Aiden raised an eyebrow.
"That includes me too, I really spoiled her, which is why she developed such a rotten personality," Kael said with a bitter smile.
"I can see that," Aiden nodded, "So you were nobility before you died. No wonder that woman could still act so entitled in prison."
"But we’ve not been nobles for a long time. Twenty-five years ago, there was a revolution in the Kingdom of Senni, and the Kaodo Family was also overthrown by its subjects. My father and other nobles were ambushed by revolutionaries while meeting, eventually being taken to the guillotine. I fled with Ophelia in a carriage to Nederlands for refuge, and on the way, we were chased by highwaymen."
Although we eventually got away, we got lost in the wilderness, and to make matters worse, Ophelia was shot and in critical condition... Then, when I was out of options, I saw a secluded mansion in the wilds."
Kael paused here, looking straight into Aiden’s eyes: "You can probably imagine what happened next."
"You encountered an ancestral vampire there?" Aiden quickly realized the direction of the story and was also a bit surprised, "The ancestral vampire had been living in hiding near the Nederlands-Senni border? Are you sure you should tell me this... isn’t that a bit too forthcoming?"
He was surprised because Kael, who claimed to be a servant of the ancestral vampire, was revealing the hiding place of the ancestor so readily. Besides the heretical tribunals of various countries and the Blood Moon Cult of the reapers, there were likely many forces in the world that wanted to eliminate the ancestral vampire.
"No, he has many havens, that was just one of them, and it’s been abandoned. It’s okay if people know about it now," Kael saw Aiden’s confusion and explained, "At that time, of course, I had no idea that such a powerful individual was living there. But as I approached the mansion, I felt something was off; the horses became restless and eventually refused to move any closer. However, Ophelia’s condition was so dire that I had to try the only possibility I had, so I got off the carriage and visited the house alone. The ancestor received me..."
"So, you sought his help, and then he turned you into vampires?" Aiden got straight to the crucial part of the story.
